Bernie’s 38 Year-Old Wife’s Mom Kidnapped???

What a strange headline to read today coming from an already turbulent part of the world. As crime issues continue in Rio de Janeiro with the Summer Olympic Games nearing, signs around the densely-populated city speak of unsafe conditions for visitors at a time when Rio is hanging on to hope of being a great host city.

And now the new story coming out of Brazil is that wife of Bernie Ecclestone, F1 supremo and head of Formula One Management, has been informed her mom’s been kidnapped and held for ransom. What’s going on down there in Brazil, anyway? Supposedly Fabiana Flosi’s mother, Aparecida Schunk, was kidnapped this past Friday and a $36.5 million dollar ransom is demanded from her captors.

OK, so $36.5 million in ransom? What’s the extra half million dollars in ransom for anyway? And what’s really going to happen to Schunck ahead of the Olympic Games? This must be a super-tense time in Brazil and surely international security forces are converging on this city to make preparations for the arrival of the world’s athletes to the world’s biggest competition stage. Could this be to Ms. Schunck’s advantage and hasten the capture of her captor(s)?

Also, Bernie Ecclestone, a man filled with brazen quotes about motor racing, a “woman’s place” in motorsport, and generally a headline-inventing machine of a human being, has not yet commented publicly.

Here’s hoping that the next time we hear from him he has good news to tell.